Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 188

How One Chicago Neighborhood Is Coping With The Toll Of Gun Violence

'More than 30,000 people have been shot in Chicago over the past decade. Of them, five out of six survived. A new series from The Trace investigates the impact of gun violence on survivors and communities, specifically in the Roseland neighborhood of Chicago. Lakeidra Chavis, Trevon Bosley, and Diane Latiker join 1A for the conversation.'

Leon Bridges' 'Gold-Diggers Sound' Is Less Sam Cooke, More 'Samurai Cowboy'

'In Gold-Diggers Sound, Leon Bridges steps firmly into the present compared to his two previous Southern soul albums.  Bridges and his producer Ricky Reed talked about the idea of encapsulating a “samurai cowboy” on the album. A samurai cowboy is a lone ranger, a taciturn defender of freedom with a face of granite and a heart of gold, wandering the vistas and picturesque landscapes of Texas with a scrappy hound or a wistful steed.' -- Here & Now

Adia Victoria - Magnolia Blues [Official Music Video]

Adia Victoria's "Magnolia Blues" from A Southern Gothic (2021)

Hiatus Kaiyote: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

'Melbourne alt-soul collective Hiatus Kaiyote tricked out its avant-garde recording studio, The Villa, and lathered it with props: a miniature desk, alien costumes, and loads of furry friends. Frontwoman Nai Palm shared with me the impetus behind the design. "I'm a treasure hunter at heart," she said, "and the beautiful thing about dressing a set with sentimental artifacts from my house is that I feel super comfy to perform." Every intricate detail of this Tiny Desk (home) concert evokes feelings of coziness, psychedelia and joyful performance art.'

Julie Mehretu's Mid-Career Survey at the Whitney

'The artist Julie Mehretu joins All Of It to discuss her mid-career survey show at The Whitney Museum of American Art, titled simply, "Julie Mehretu." The exhibit spans over two decades and features almost 70 works on both canvas and paper. The selected pieces reveal Mehretu's wide range of source material and her commitment to finding new avenues of expression within abstract painting.'

Best-selling Authors Team Up to Write About the Power and Fun of Growing Up as a Black Boy

'Best-selling authors Kwame Mbalia, Jason Reynolds, George M. Johnson, Jerry Craft and Tochi Onyebuchi gathered at a coffee shop in Brooklyn, New York, to discuss their collaboration Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood and the importance of representing Black boys in joyful stories and with a full range of emotions.' -- CBS This Morning

Listening Party with Leon Bridges

'The title of Leon Bridges's third album, Gold-Digger’s Sound, comes from the Los Angeles hotel and studio where the Grammy winner wrote and recorded it. Bridges joins All Of It for a Listening Party.'

PBS Short Film Festival | Learning to Breathe (dir. Joe Brewster)

'The film catches up with young Black men who were part of the 2015 New York Times digital short film “A Conversation about Growing Up Black.” These young men reflect on who they are now and how their perspectives on race, justice, and social inequity and inequality have changed. “Learning to Breathe” is the second of three original films from WORLD Channel’s “The Conversation” series that revisits topics explored in “Conversations on Race,” a digital series originally commissioned by the New York Times from 2015 to 2017.'

Black Theater Artists Are Helping Shakespeare Speak To More Diverse Audiences

Evgenia Eliseeva/Commonwealth Shakespeare Company

'Scholars have a mantra: Shakespeare is universal and his works are for everyone. But for Black actors and audiences, does an implicit whiteness in the Bard's canon hinder access and identification? "There is still the pervasive understanding of Shakespeare as implicitly white," said Patricia Akhimie, a Black Shakespeare scholar who teaches at Rutgers University. "That is, unless someone is explicitly named as different, that everyone and everything in the play are white. That still is alienating for audiences. It was for me".' -- All Things Considered

Playwright Katori Hall Takes On The 'Black Superwoman Myth

'Katori Hall didn't want to gloss over Tina Turner's life in the Tony-nominated musical Tina. Instead, she says, it was important to be "brutally honest" about the pain and trauma Turner has survived.' -- Fresh Air